


Seven, Eight, Now Lay Them Straight

by Zany_Frog



Series: Counting Songs [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 03:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zany_Frog/pseuds/Zany_Frog
Summary: Seven was the soft background noise, the nobody.Eight was the hope, the imaginary.A little character study on Vanya, and a look into what the others would have wanted if there had been an Eight.





	Seven, Eight, Now Lay Them Straight

Seven was ordinary. She had no powers. At least, that’s what Father said. If anyone had thought a little harder about it, they would have realized that it made no sense. Forty three other babies had been born from spontaneous births on the exact same day and in the exact same hour, and Father had talked about the powers that he knew they possessed despite never seeing them. Seven could have been an exception, but it never would have made sense. They knew that, in retrospect.

Seven was different, but that didn’t immediately make the other siblings turn her away. What did make them were the blank stares they got sometimes. The dead eyes she would see the world through. Even Five’s mask broke sometimes. There was a twitch of a smile or a small wince. Seven had nothing. No tears when she was sad, no laughter when she was happy.

Father began to isolate her from the others in training and photos, and they didn’t protest. They would include her in other things. In play and gossip, but not where she could get hurt during missions. Father kept her out of the limelight, and she became a shadow. The unknown sister. They all drifted apart as they got older, their play time and numbers less.

No one truly noticed the exact day that she left, as she kept herself in her room more often the older they got. All they noticed was the music stopping. The constant noise in the background of their lives. Even if none of them had been particularly close to her, they all felt her absence like a wound that never went away. Everything felt wrong, without her quiet input and watchful eyes. 

Seven was the soft background noise, the nobody.

...

There was no Number Eight, but all of the siblings liked to imagine one. There was a Number Eight that didn’t believe for so long, a Number Eight that left sooner, that never used power the wrong way, that never got scared. There was a Number Eight that wasn’t impulsive, was a hero, was ordinary among the extraordinary.

Number Eight was anything and everything that they wanted. A stranger, a friend, a sibling. Number Eight was all of them mixed together, but better in a way they couldn’t be.  
No matter what happened, they all fell back on their fantasy of Eight and who they would be. They could be right where everyone else had been wrong. They could protect and befriend and any number of things.

When One was alone on the moon, Eight kept him company. While Two was fighting, Eight was his sidekick. Eight reassured Three when she needed it most and comforted Four when everything was too much. Five imagined Eight by his side when the loneliness was overwhelming and his real siblings hurt to think about. Six could turn to Eight for distraction when the monsters inside him wanted out, and Seven could talk to and be included by Eight.

But the one thing that all the siblings liked to believe? Number Eight was there, even when others weren’t.

Eight was the hope, the imaginary.

**Author's Note:**

> The only reason I added the Eight part is for some consistency in the length of the fics in this series. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
